Woodlands in Philadelphia Reflected Modern English Landscape Style

The English influence on American gardening began with the Colonial period on the East Coast.

Much of the garden design followed the geometric, old fashioned style of straight lines and symmetry in the landscape.

A few versions of the modern, more natural approach to the landscape appeared as well.

Woodlands became an early example of that design style.

Woodlands, Thomas Hamilton's property in late 1700s Philadelphia with its extensive lawn. Engraving by William Birch from The Country Seats of the United States of North America (1808)

Woodlands in Philadelphia was the garden of Thomas Hamilton (1745-1813). His landscape followed the modern, picturesque English view of extensive lawns, winding paths, and water features. He also included a plant collection that totaled 13,000 plants.

Thomas Jefferson visited Woodlands, probably for ideas for his own landscape which he designed at Monticello, also in the English picturesque view.

Well before the nineteenth century we can see evidence of the English influence on American gardening, including colonial gardens and plantations in the south, and also gardens of the wealthy around large cities in the northeast like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

Comments

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I rarely dispense my design expertise or gardening knowledge on my blog because many garden bloggers on Blotanical are very experienced and it is my preference not to overlap my professional life with blogging. If you need any help with Blotanical, just let me know. What I find is that Blotanical is very useful at getting your blog additional traffic. You must be using it, because I see you have some activity with bloggers picking your post. Responding to comments is a good start as is visiting blogs that visit you. I wish you luck in your time at Blotanical. It is a nice group of garden bloggers.

I rarely select a blog to ‘mentor’ because most bloggers do not need the assistance. I see I did approve your blog some time ago because like you, I am a designer, Master Gardener and my home originally was North/West of Philadelphia.

I rarely dispense my design expertise or gardening knowledge on my blog because many garden bloggers on Blotanical are very experienced and it is my preference not to overlap my professional life with blogging. If you need any help with Blotanical, just let me know. What I find is that Blotanical is very useful at getting your blog additional traffic. You must be using it, because I see you have some activity with bloggers picking your post. Responding to comments is a good start as is visiting blogs that visit you. I wish you luck in your time at Blotanical. It is a nice group of garden bloggers.